The Orangeville Citizen has received correspondence from an unidentified source that could be construed as a threat against rural residents who choose to have an industrial wind turbine installed on their property.

The letter arrived in Wednesday morning’s mail. It contained no return address on the envelope and was not signed.

It read:

“Notice to all Farmers and Custom Farming Operators:

Any field that has an industrial wind turbine will be subject to having foreign materials placed in the crops, which will result in very serious damage to any harvesting equipment.

Regards,

Your Neighbors.”

It could not be specifically determined whether the correspondence was an actual threat, or a warning that materials left over from a turbine installation could cause damage during the harvesting season.

Since there have been no complaints of building tools or materials being left strewn about at a turbine installation site, and the fact the writer chose not to sign his or her name, it could be assumed the letter was, indeed, a threat of sabotage.

Told of the anonymous correspondence, Robert Hornung, president of the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA), commented in an e-mail:

“Wind energy continues to be a topic of considerable discussion in the media and in many communities with proposed and active projects.

“CanWEA strongly supports the right of all citizens to engage in a respectful and factbased dialogue on wind energy, whether they support wind energy or not, but it is unacceptable for any participant in such a dialogue to threaten, harass or advocate criminal behaviour.”

The Citizen alerted police to the letter, but law enforcement officials had not responded to interview requests by press time.

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